Chuck Tender Roast @131 for 48 hours turned green!

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Bummed

Meat Mopper
Original poster
Jun 17, 2016
150
111
South Alabama
I started off with this Chuck Tender Roast that was marked down so I thought I would give it a go.


Since it was such a long bath I decided not to put any salt, spice or anything on it. Vacu sealed it up and dropped it in the water.

My Anova kept the temp steady at 131 the entire 48 hours. When it was time to pull it out I had the grill with a cast iron skillet on it ready to sear.


Everything looked good and my wife and I was excited to open it up. Then this;


There was a green slime all over it, looked a lot like a fine algae. It didn't have a smell to it other than a really beefy smell which it should have to begin with. Needles to say there was no way we were going to eat this thing.


The inside looked amazing and smelled amazing. I had no choice after but to toss it in the trash. We really didn't want to take any chances.

After running up to Captain D's for dinner I did some research on this and it seems that it was safe to eat and it happens with longer baths. There are many factors that could have led to it but 'they' say to give your meat a quick 30 second boil or pre-sear prior to starting the sous vide.It could have been the meat to begin with although it looked and smelled fine before starting.

At this point I may never know but I wanted to pass this along for any who may have more info or may come across this in the future.
 
Pretty normal to look greenish and unnapealing, I get that when doing Chucks.Although yours looks really green lol.

slime was probably proteins or fat?

I totally agree on the pre-sear it will be more appealing out of the bath. A pre-sear also helps with the post sear.

proteins skimmed from drippings.

 
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Pretty normal to look greenish and unnapealing, I get that when doing Chucks.Although yours looks really green lol.

slime was probably proteins or fat?

I totally agree on the pre-sear it will be more appealing out of the bath. A pre-sear also helps with the post sear.

proteins skimmed from drippings.

Yea I don't know the answer, there are a lot of comments out there on it. Most say to sear it or torch it to make sure you get full coverage and it will be fine. I have done a lot of steaks, chicken and even some Ahi Tuna and have never come across this. Hopefully others won't panic if they come across it in the future.
 
I did a chuck roll once that turned green like that doing SV. I figured it was bacteria introduced during the handling at the butcher. I have become extremely bacteriophobic when handling meats prior to SV since then. In fact I prefer original cryopacked meats. I dunno... but yours was already price reduced that looks like it was just repackaged in a new tray.
 
Damn, that's nasty looking. Can't blame you for tossing it.

I've done a lot of lower tier roasts like chuck, etc. for 36-50 hours, and have never seen anything remotely like that. All I can think of is rule #1 when cooking anything sous vide long term, which I consider 5 hours or more. Always sear or boil the item 1-2 minutes at the outset.

Better luck next time.
 
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Sorry about the fail, but thanks for the info. This is the sort of thing we need to hear in the SV section, since so many of us are in the learning stage.
Better luck next time!!


Dan
 
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